Norco - A Volunteer's Tale part 2

[Victoria A Thompson <toriandsteve@juno.com>]

Before I begin I just have to let you all know that I have Little Miss
Picky Pants running scared!  I don't know how I'm going to proceed with
this development, but when you make someone feel like an ogre something
deep inside you makes you want to take advantage of the situation. 
Serious advantage.  I'm going to have to ponder my alternatives for a
bit.  Next years Riverdance could be interesting .... hmmmm ... Little
Miss Picky Pants running around in a thong without sunscreen ... hmmmm
... decisions, decisions.  Don't you just love blackmail!!

On with the show!

I got to bed around 11:30 Friday night and had been sound asleep for a
couple of hours when I jolted awake with the thought that I hadn't paid
my farrier yet.  Taffy had been shod two weeks before and I totally and
completely forgot all about it.  I laid back down telling myself to write
the check out before I left in the morning.  Well, for the next 30
minutes or so I tossed and turned because I knew I'd forget to write the
check.  I finally got out of bed and went and wrote out the check.  I
wasn't satisfied with just the check so I wrote my farrier a huge apology
note and stuck it in an envelope, threw a T-shirt on and ran out to the
mailbox.  I felt much better after that and nestled back down into bed
only to have the alarm go off 1 1/2 hours later.  I felt like I hadn't
slept at all and stumbled around the house making coffee and taking a
shower.  I can just imagine how Wonder Woman and L'il Ms P P felt when
they got up - if they bothered to sleep at all that night.  

I got into the cockroach (my husbands car) and headed for Vet Check 1
where I was to be the out timer.  The cockroach comes into play later on
in the story, so I'll tell you a little about the insect now.  The damn
thing wont die!  For ten years now we have been saying that as soon as it
dies we'll get a new car (it's worthless as a trade in, so we're just
going to let it blow up).  Well, just like those obnoxious insects,
nothing will kill this car.  Beat to sh--, peeling paint, filthy, smelly,
no fan so the A/C and heater don't work, the windshield went through one
too many sand storms in Arizona and is so pitted you can't see clearly,
closing in on 188,000 miles, huge knock in the engine.  In other words,
the kind of car you are embarrassed  to be seen in, let alone willing to
let anyone ride in.  Vet Check 1 was located in Norco, just up the street
from where Wonder Woman and I board our horses.  Don't know where it will
be relocated to when the developer starts building houses on the spot,
but that's for next year.

I arrived just after a couple other volunteers and we hung out for a few
minutes until Wonder Woman showed up with water troughs, hay, bran
buckets, carrots, bran, crewless riders gear etc.  We all pitched in
unloading the truck and spreading hay around.  One of the houses from
across the street was allowing us the use of his water, so I grabbed the
hose to fill up water troughs.  I was pleased to see that Wonder Woman
had taken one of my suggestions from last year to heart and provided a
nozzle on the end of the hose so we wouldn't have to keep running to the
house to turn the water on and off.  One of the joints where we had
connected two hoses leaked, but all was right with the world until I
aimed the end of the hose at the first trough and turned the water on. 
There was so much water pressure that when the water hit the bottom of
the trough it was just thrown right back at me!  I looked like a drowned
rat.  And I had about 10 buckets to do too.  If it had been 2 o'clock in
the afternoon I might have been grateful for the bath, but at 6:30 in the
morning I was not amused.  I suppose I should be happy with providing
some comic relief to the other volunteers, but I was sorely tempted to
turn the hose on some of them so that I could get my jollies too.  Note
for next year: don't bother blow drying your hair before The Race.  Early
on in The Race the volunteer emergency trailer driver looked at me and
said, "Looks like you got a good sweat up already, doesn't seem like it's
that hot yet."  If the hose had been near by I would have let him have
it.  We ended up removing the nozzle and turning the hose way down and
just letting the water flow into the troughs all the time.  If someone
wanted to use the hose to wash their horse off we just asked them to go
below the troughs to avoid adding anymore water than was necessary to the
already muddy area.  Worked out pretty good.  

The first 50's started arriving right around 7 o'clock.  It was a steady
stream from then on.  It was a 20 minute hold for 50's and the first one
out handed me her time card right on schedule and off she went.  Number 2
was hot on her heels.  This was my first year as a time keeper (other
than the finish line last year), and I was amazed at the number of people
that questioned my ability to read a clock.  I do have to admit that I
screwed up once (more on that later), but I was beginning to get a little
tired of telling people that I really don't care what their watch says,
it is my watch that determines the time (my watch was set exactly to the
official time clock and I kept checking to make sure the two matched all
morning).  It's one thing to use your own watch to keep track of the time
you spend at a hold, but don't try to tell the time keepers our clocks
are wrong.  I had a smile on my face when I told one guy I'd screw him
over big time if he left before I said he could go.  Actually, none of
the riders complained about their time and our time being different, it
was some of the crew people that tried to give me a hard time.  That was
the case with the guy I just mentioned.  His crew person was giving me
grief about how she set her stop watch right when the P and R person gave
him his count and how his 20 minutes were up and I should look at her
watch to see etc, etc.  If the hose had been near by I would have let her
have it too.  There was one time I screwed up on.  Notice I freely admit
when I make a mistake.  The P and R person clearly wrote the wrong time
on the card when the horse came down to criteria.  We're talking like
over an hour off.  The crew person showed me the card and I calculated
the time her rider could leave.  Unfortunately I said she still had ten
minutes.  I added an hour to her time instead of 40 minutes (this was a
25 miler).  The crew person ran and got Wonder Woman and it wasn't until
Wonder Woman said I made a booboo that I figured out what I did wrong. 
The rider was only delayed a couple of minutes, and I apologized to her
and her crew person, so no harm done.

Just a side note to all you newbies out there.  Don't mount your horse
and stand at the out gate for 15 minutes waiting for your time to leave. 
The hold is that long for a reason.  Even if your horse has had his fill
of water and food and is standing there doing nothing, you should at
least give him as much of an opportunity to do both for as long as you
can.  If your horse fidgets and it takes awhile for you to mount, come to
the out gate a minute or two before your time, but if it is easy for you
to get up and go then by all means don't come until 15 seconds or so
before your time is up.  At this particular vet check the out gate was
right next to water troughs and hay piles.  All you have to do ask for
the official time, look at the out-time written on your time card (given
to you when you entered the vet check).  If the time is within a couple
minutes of when you are able to leave start preparing to mount up. 
Tighten your cinch, put your helmet back on etc.  At races where the out
gate is far from goodies, take some with you and go rest near the out
gate so you can ask for the official time.  It takes ten seconds or less
to get up on your horse, don't mount up early and wait by the out gate,
because you will not be allowed to leave even a few seconds early.  Take
advantage of every opportunity to allow your horse to rest and rehydrate.

The last of the 50 milers left  long before the first 25 miler left.  The
number 63 seems to stick in my mind as the number of 50 milers that left
Vet Check 1.  I know of 4 pulls.  Poor Heather Hackworth struck out again
this year.  Three years in a row her horse was deemed unable to start The
Race, and this year she finally vetted through OK, only to have the horse
come up with metabolic problems.  New electrolites were used for the
first time and obviously didn't sit well on his tummy.  He was fine after
a little while, but that didn't do Heather any good.  It did get her the
Hard Luck Award at the awards presentation though.  One rider lost a shoe
and chose not to continue in an easy boot because the farrier had just
left for Vet Check 2.  Another horse I believe fell down and was all
scratched up and the rider pulled (don't remember if the vet pulled this
guy or not), and there was one more metabolic problem.  That's all I
remember at any rate.  

The last of the 25 milers pulled out with the drag riders right behind
about 11 o'clock.  Those of us that were left emptied water troughs and
bran buckets and piled all sorts of things into Wonder Woman's truck. 
WW's truck looked like it belonged to Sanford and Son.  I followed her
back to the nature preserve just in case something fell out, arriving
about 11:30.  We were just settling into a couple of chairs in some shade
(something that was totally lacking at Vet Check 1) when Little Miss
Picky Pants came on the radio and said about 16 volunteer lunches still
had to be made.  My next duty was suppose to be at the finish line, so I
still had time and volunteered to make the sandwiches.  All the lunch
stuff was inside the RV that served as the ride office, and it was air
conditioned.  See, I'm not as stupid as I let on.  Yeah, right.  It was
hotter than blue blazes in there!  The air conditioner was turned on when
I went in to fix the lunches and it hadn't cooled the RV down by the time
I finished.  It was just starting to cool down when I bagged the last
sandwich, and I said to myself, "Self, I says, one of those sandwiches is
yours, and you might as well stay in here and eat it."  So I listened to
myself and did just that.  

I just reread this thing and decided it's long enough for one posting. 
Stay tuned because the good, juicy, blood and guts stuff is yet to come.

Yours Truly.